Leese: We want to face Hemel with the title at stake

CHESHAM United have six games before they play Hemel Hempstead on Easter Monday, and manager Andy Leese says they have to do everything they can to make sure the Southern Premier League title is still at stake then.

Chesham beat Chippenham 2-0 on Saturday to make it nine league wins in a row, but Hemel’s impressive 2-0 triumph in Poole preserved their six-point buffer - and they can stretch that to nine against Stourbridge tomorrow night.

Stewart Lawrie and James Potten scored the goals for Chesham at the weekend, but Leese admits time is starting to run out for his team.

He said: “We can only do what we’re doing, but we’re running out of games.

“We’ve won ten straight games in all competitions, which is a fantastic achievement, but it’s getting to the point where we’re hoping something will happen rather than making it happen.

“It’s a little bit frustrating, but you have to give huge credit to Hemel for their consistency.”

In many other years, Chesham would have done enough already to be champions-elect. The champagne would be on ice and they’d be just a few wins away from securing their place in The Conference League.

They’ve just about burned off every other team in the division, but Hemel have set a staggering pace with 28 wins and 114 goals from their 37 matches.

However, they only need to slip up once to unlock the door for Chesham ahead of their trip to Vauxhall Road.

Leese said: “I’d like to think it won’t be a dead rubber. If we can keep it interesting until then if would be fantastic for us and for the neutrals.

“But we’ve got to win four or fives before then and they’ve got to slip up. There is lots of footbal still to play and I hope we don’t go there with nothing on it.

“But I’m just pleased we’ve kept it interesting until now. At one stage when they were 11 points clear it looked to most onlookers like it was Hemel’s title.

“It’s still theirs to lose, but we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and hope they slip up. There’s not much else we can do.”